Turkey and Other Thanksgiving Meat Ideas

femme Fatale

femme Fatale

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I will be hosting my family this Thanksgiving and have only cooked a turkey once before with dry results. That was based on label recommendations, and I don't want to go that route again. So does anyone hsve an idea to mske the turkey tender?
 
I use turkey bags and it's always juicy and has a lot of juice on the bottom of the pan which you can then use as gravy mixture.

ovenbags.jpg
 
femme Fatale said:
I will be hosting my family this Thanksgiving and have only cooked a turkey once before with dry results. That was based on label recommendations, and I don't want to go that route again. So does anyone hsve an idea to mske the turkey tender?
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I also agree with the cooking bag, or using a roasting pan that has a cover and keeping it on for most of the roasting time. I use one of those enamel roasting pans that I've had forever. You could remove the cover for a bit of the end time to get more brown or not. If you carve and remove the turkey from the bone before bringing to the table, who knows if it's brown or not. Of course if you want a pretty pic of your turkey, brown is necessary :lol:

Another way of keeping a bird moist is stuffing in the bird, that's tricky because of worry of getting the stuffing to proper temp and not poison your family with salmonella :hmm:

I'm sure you'll do fine however you choose to roast.
 
Do you have any relatives that have done one that you liked? Contact that person for instructions. Oh, there is also the Butterball Turkey line.
 
On a rack , breast side down. Be careful not to tear the skin, and turn it over for the last half hour to brown the breast side.
 
Bottesini said:
On a rack , breast side down. Be careful not to tear the skin, and turn it over for the last half hour to brown the breast side.
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Oh, Bottesini, I forgot about that one. Have heard it mentioned many times, think I'll do that this Thanksgiving.
 
You could baste it once an hour or half hour.....we usually bake it at 325 breast side up but covered and the last hour uncovered to give it that golden color.....doing a 25 pounder as we speak.....for my wife's work....kids and staff at the school for the deaf. Oh, back to the basting for a sec.....I use extra virgin olive oil very lightly but 2-4 times over the 4.5 to 5 hour cook time.....
 
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Jane B. said:
Do you have any relatives that have done one that you liked? Contact that person for instructions. Oh, there is also the Butterball Turkey line.
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I posted the link for Butterball hotline. it's right over your comment . :roll:
 
Bottesini said:
On a rack , breast side down. Be careful not to tear the skin, and turn it over for the last half hour to brown the breast side.
Click to expand...

Maybe it would help to spray some pam on the pan and turkey before putting it on it belly .
FF are you planning on stuffing your bird too?
 
When I cook turkey - i use a thermometer that gets injected in deepest part of meat , away from bone. I use a cover or alum foil for all of cooking time. Also take butter or best grade of margarine and rub the skin and put dabs of butter under the skin on the white breast part. It takes a whole stick for this. salt and pepper. I try to use chicken stock (I have often used tap water when no chicken stock is available) and pour a cup or two into the pan to let steam cook as well. I take it out when it reached the preset turkey temp and let it rest for 20-30 mins before even moving and cutting. Its always tender and delicious for me. FYI - I never use stuffed stuffing in the turkey, always use the boxed crap since I am never in mood to make the old fashioned sausage stuffing although I like it.
 
radioman said:
When I cook turkey - i use a thermometer that gets injected in deepest part of meat , away from bone. I use a cover or alum foil for all of cooking time. Also take butter or best grade of margarine and rub the skin and put dabs of butter under the skin on the white breast part. It takes a whole stick for this. salt and pepper. I try to use chicken stock (I have often used tap water when no chicken stock is available) and pour a cup or two into the pan to let steam cook as well. I take it out when it reached the preset turkey temp and let it rest for 20-30 mins before even moving and cutting. Its always tender and delicious for me. FYI - I never use stuffed stuffing in the turkey, always use the boxed crap since I am never in mood to make the old fashioned sausage stuffing although I like it.
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You can make the boxed crap with canned chicken stock to made it taste better. I like the stuffing the bird as it taste better. Don't you take alum foil for last half hour so the bird will
get a nice brown color ?
 
radioman said:
When I cook turkey - i use a thermometer that gets injected in deepest part of meat , away from bone. I use a cover or alum foil for all of cooking time. Also take butter or best grade of margarine and rub the skin and put dabs of butter under the skin on the white breast part. It takes a whole stick for this. salt and pepper. I try to use chicken stock (I have often used tap water when no chicken stock is available) and pour a cup or two into the pan to let steam cook as well. I take it out when it reached the preset turkey temp and let it rest for 20-30 mins before even moving and cutting. Its always tender and delicious for me. FYI - I never use stuffed stuffing in the turkey, always use the boxed crap since I am never in mood to make the old fashioned sausage stuffing although I like it.
Click to expand...

Your mood helps you do it the way the cooking shows really talk about a lot. That is that stuffing should NOT be done in the bird because by the time the stuffing reaches a safe temperature the bird is way overcooked.

By the way, Stove Top brand stuffing is so much like what my aunt (who was the primary cook for big family dinners when I was growing up) used to do that I don't feel I am missing anything using it. The only thing different it seems is the use of raisins. There are none in the Stove Top which is fine with me as I used to pick them out of what my aunt made.
 
radioman said:
When I cook turkey - i use a thermometer that gets injected in deepest part of meat , away from bone. I use a cover or alum foil for all of cooking time. Also take butter or best grade of margarine and rub the skin and put dabs of butter under the skin on the white breast part. It takes a whole stick for this. salt and pepper. I try to use chicken stock (I have often used tap water when no chicken stock is available) and pour a cup or two into the pan to let steam cook as well. I take it out when it reached the preset turkey temp and let it rest for 20-30 mins before even moving and cutting. Its always tender and delicious for me. FYI - I never use stuffed stuffing in the turkey, always use the boxed crap since I am never in mood to make the old fashioned sausage stuffing although I like it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I add sausage to that boxed crap, it gets rave reviews, easy,peasy!:lol:
 
Great ideas by everybody, thanks so much! :P:hug:

Umm Scott, stay out of my oven! :laugh2:
 
you guys are right.. I used to take the alum foil or the turkey roaster pan cover off the last half hour, but I dont anymore. The turkeys nowadays seems to be much leaner then it has in the past, less fat the skin doesnt really need to be THAT dark and crisp. Like I said When I cook it, it browns to my liking. I dont like it when the drum sticks shows the bone at the end so I leave the cover on. My kids seem to like my cooking over grandmas.
What I do now is I buy all the turkeys I can thats on sale thats under 50 cents a pound and put in the freezer so I have one turkey a month. A 10-12 lb turkey is perfect for 4-6 people with leftovers for few days plus 2 days of soup from bones for 5-8 bucks. At this price, I am thrilled with that much real meat for a week worth of food for under 10 bucks for feeding a family.

thanks for tip too-- maybe I'll try sage sausage with box crap and use chicken stock instead of water....:hmm::ty:
 
radioman said:
you guys are right.. I used to take the alum foil or the turkey roaster pan cover off the last half hour, but I dont anymore. The turkeys nowadays seems to be much leaner then it has in the past, less fat the skin doesnt really need to be THAT dark and crisp. Like I said When I cook it, it browns to my liking. I dont like it when the drum sticks shows the bone at the end so I leave the cover on. My kids seem to like my cooking over grandmas.
What I do now is I buy all the turkeys I can thats on sale thats under 50 cents a pound and put in the freezer so I have one turkey a month. A 10-12 lb turkey is perfect for 4-6 people with leftovers for few days plus 2 days of soup from bones for 5-8 bucks. At this price, I am thrilled with that much real meat for a week worth of food for under 10 bucks for feeding a family.

thanks for tip too-- maybe I'll try sage sausage with box crap and use chicken stock instead of water....:hmm::ty:
Click to expand...

I once went to a turkey farm with a friend and we picked out our turkey . They were free range birds and feed no antibiotic or other crap. My family did not like turkey b/c it tasted to gamey and was leaner . It was not pumped up with fillers , it looked more like wild turkey and not one that been working out. We had a store brought one next year.
 
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